Francis H. Pierpont 34

Francis H. Pierpont Courtesy of The U niversity of North Carolina Press 34 The City of Alexandria - One Time Capital of Virginia By ROBERT NELSON A NDERSON* Any article dealing with the existence of the City of Alexandria as the one time Capital of Virginia must consider the story of Francis H arrison Pier pont who was born in what was then Monongalia Countv, Virginia, on January 25, 1814, for the two are interwoven. School teacher, lawyer, in dustrialist, father of the so-called Restored Government of Virginia and its Governor ( 1861-68 ); father of \,Vest Virginia ( 1861-63 ) ; U nited States Congressman ( 1870 ); U .S. Collector of Internal R evenue ( 1881 ) ; he died in Pittsburgh, Pa., at the home of his daughter on M arch 24, 1899, and was buried in Fairmont, vVest Virginia. His was a very full life and we can only touch on the highspots leading up to the establishment of the City of Alexandria as one time Capital of Virginia. 1 But in order to place these particular events in their proper perspective it is necessary to review some of the earlier events and happenings in Virginia and the South that brought this about. By 1840 Virginia began to recover from a severe agricultural depression. But even as Virginia grew more prosperous the agitation over slavery was carrying her down the road to civil war. The controversy over slavery in the territories and the debates over the fugitive slave law made for increased bitterness between North and South during the 1850's but the attempted slave insurrection on Virginia's own soil supported by John Brown of Kansas, an Absolitionist, did most to excite Virginian emotions and fears. The victory of Abraham Lincoln in the presidential election of 1860 led the States of the far South to take a long-threatened step and withdraw from the Union. South -Carolina seceded on December 20, 1860,2 and was followed by five other Southern States, namely : Georgia, Florida, Ala bama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. On February 8, 1861 , at Montgomery, Alabama, these six states established a new nation called the Confederate States of America. Although political, economic and social interests drew Virginia toward the Confederacy, Virginians hesitated to withdraw from the U nion their fathers had done so much to establish and maintain. Unionist sentiment was still strong in many areas, particularly in the western part of the State, * Third president of the Arlington H istorical Society and first editor of its Magazine. 1 For greater detail on the life history of Pierpont, see the excellent biography by Charles H .. Ambler, Professor of History, West Virginia University, published by the University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1937. 2 See Am erican Heritage Civil War Chronolo gy, New York, 1960, as to this and some other dates herein. 35 and Virginians participated in futile attempts to reach a compromise be tween the Lincoln Government at Washington and the Confederates in Montgomery. But on March 1, 1861, the United States Congress formally refused to consider Virginia's peace conference proposals. Three days after the surrender of the Federal garrison at Fort Sumter President Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers from all the states that were still in the Union to put down the "insurrection" in the South. Governor John Letcher of Virginia refused to provide a single man for this purpose, and on April 17, 1861, a secret Virginia Convention, called in February to consider the Commonwealth's course of action, rather than share in the subjugation of Virginia's sister states, by a vote of 88 to 55 adopted an Ordinance of Secession. 3 The Ordinance of Secession was ratified by the people on May 23, 1861, by a margin of more than six to one. Most of the votes against withdrawal came from the far western counties. Thus Virginia joined the Confederacy just two days after the Confederate Congress had voted (May 21, 1861 ) to move the Confederate Capital to Richmond and from that time on Richmond was the center of the new nation. In the month between the action of the Virginia Convention on Secession and the ratification of this action by the people of Virginia, the only step taken by the defenders of the City of Washington was a limited surreptitious reconnaissance of the areas around the Virginia end of the Aqueduct and Long Bridges. However, on the night of May 23-24, 1861, 10,000 Federal troops crossed the Potomac into Virginia and occupied the City of Alex andria and thus, in the words of Miss C. B. Rose, Jr., in her article on "Civil War Forts in Arlington" (The Arlington Historical Magazine October 1960, page 14), "beginning for Arlington one of its most important periods historically." In northwest Virginia following the adoption of the Secession Ordinance events moved as rapidly and as illegally as they did east of the mountains at the same time. Of the 47 delegates from what is now ·west Virginia in the Secession Convention at Richmond only fifteen or about 1/3 of the total voted in favor of secession. In the absence of a better criterion this vote may be taken as an index to the sentiments of leaders in northwest Virginia. It is interesting to note that Francis H . Pierpont, who within less than six months was to play a leading role in northwest Virginia, was not a dele gate to the Secession Convention at Richmond. An ardent anti-slavery and Union man, he had supported Lincoln in the election of 1860. As early as April 3, 1861, he had written a friend that the difficulty that was develop ing between the great sections of the Union could not be "settled without a fight."• , 3 Ordinances Adopted by the Conve ntion of Virginia in Secret, April and May, 1861, p. 3; Acts of General Assembly of the State of Virginia passed in 1861, Richmond, 1861. 4 Charles H . Ambler, Francis H. Pierpont, Chapel Hill, N.C., 193 i ; p. i9. 36 The Virginia Secession Ordinance was no sooner adopted than the people of northwest Virginia including the delegates who had not voted against it, began to express them.selves in opposition. As usual the method was through mass meetings. A large meeting on April 22, 1861, at Clarksburg adopted resolutions recommending among other things that "the people" in each of the counties comprising northwest Virginia elect no less than ,five of "their wisest, best and discreetest men, to meet in Convention on the 13th day of May next ( at Wheeling), to consult and determine upon such action as the peop.le · of Northwestern Virginia should take in the present fearful ernergency."5 The Wheeling Conventions The \,Vheeling Convention for which Pierpont's speeches helped pave the way, met in Washington Hall on the 13th of May 1861 as planned. Present were 430-odd delegates representing 27 counties, all but one of which, Fred erick, ·ire now a part of West Virginia. On the second day of the Conven tion, John S. Carlisle, who had been a member of the Virginia Secession Convention, revealed his main purpose was to proclaim a "New State" in the Federal Union. However, from the first, leading members of the Wheel ing Convention, including Pierpont, opposed Carlisle's plan as precipitate and revolutionary. As a result the \,V heeling Convention merely condemned the Virginia Secession Ordinance as "unconstitutional, null and void" and urged the voters of northwest Virginia to repudiate the Ordinance and to elect the forbidden representatives to the Federal Congress as well as the usual members to the General Assembly. Perhaps the most important action accomplishep was that authorizing "the people" of all counties of northwest Virginia · on the 4th of June to appoint delegates to a General Convention to meet on the 11th of the same month at a place to be indicated later. On the appointed day the body thus assembled met in Washington Hall and ,vas known thenceforth as "the Second \t\1heeling Convention." It consisted of about 100 delegates representing 34 counties, all but two of which, Alexandria and Fairfax, are now a part of \Nest Virginia. With preliminaries out of the way the Convention went through the motions of reorganizing the Government of Virginia, both state and local, on a loyal basis. On June 19th, the Convention adopted "An Ordinance for the Re-organ ization of the State Government" of Virginia. c Loyal perso ns elected in the preceding May were declared to be "the Legislature of the State" which was authorized "to discharge the duties and exercise the powers pertaining to the General · Assembly." Until the seal of the Commonwealth could be -, I bid., p . .82. 6 Ordinances of the Convention Assembled at Wheeling, J une 11, 1861, Wheeling, Va., 1861 ; pp. 40-42. 37 Title page of the Ordinances of "the Second Wheeling Convention" which include "An Ordinance for the Reorganization of the State Government" of Virginia [the so-called Restored Government] adopted June 19, 1861, and "An Ordinance to Provide for the Formation of a New State [West Virginia] out of a Portion of the Territory of this State," adopted August 20, 1861. 38 Title page of the Acts of the first General Assembly held after the establishment of the so-called Restored Virginia Government. 39 altered so as to suit the needs of the Restored Government, an order of the Convention authorized the use of the seal of the Commonwealth with· the additional words "Liberty and Union." Through the efforts of Pierpont and others, plans and proposals looking to the immediate dismemberment of Virginia and the formation of a New State were abandoned in a con certed effort "to put down rebellion and restore peace to the country." Following the adoption of the Ordinance, Francis H.

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